Willagee Bears may carry the stronger season record into their Women’s Premiership semi-final against Fremantle Roosters, but recent results suggest there could be far less between the sides than the ladder indicates.
The Bears finished third with a 6–6 record, scoring 290 points and conceding 178, while Fremantle finished one win behind at 5–7 with a +76 points differential.
It is their head-to-head progression, however, that makes this match-up particularly interesting.
Willagee dominated the earlier meeting 26–4, with Tara McNally crossing for a hat-trick as the Bears controlled the contest. When the sides met again later in the season, the result was completely reversed as Fremantle claimed a 20–8 victory.
That represents a 34-point turnaround in the margin between their last two meetings.
McNally remains one of Willagee’s biggest attacking weapons after finishing the regular season with 15 tries, but Fremantle showed in their latest meeting that they can keep her off the scoreboard.
The Roosters have their own dangerous attacking options. Britney Grimes has crossed against Willagee in consecutive games, while Mariah Bell scored twice in Fremantle’s latest victory over the Bears.
There is little separating the teams defensively either. Willagee conceded an average of 14.8 points per game during the regular season, compared with Fremantle’s 15.3.
The Bears therefore enter with the stronger overall season numbers, but Fremantle arrive having produced the most convincing recent performance between the clubs.
For Willagee, the challenge will be finding a way to restore the attacking threat that produced 26 points in their earlier meeting.
For the Roosters, it will be about proving their latest result was not an isolated performance.
With Fremantle’s scoring against the Bears improving significantly as the season progressed, this semi-final shapes as a much tighter contest than third against fourth might suggest.